2 charged in multiple Lafayette thefts

Charges have been filed against two Lafayette men for their possible involvement in some local thefts.

Posted: Nov. 13, 2017 4:58 PM

Updated: Nov. 13, 2017 5:20 PM

Posted By: Staff Reporters

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) — Charges have been filed against two Lafayette men for their possible involvement in some local thefts.

Court documents say that on Sept. 18, 2015, at around 4:15 p.m. police investigated a report of a burglary on Price Court in Lafayette.

The owners of the home, Richard and Cindy Murray, told police that they had left earlier that day and when they returned they found that the garage door was left open. Upon further investigation, they found their home to have been ransacked and noticed several items missing including personal checks, hand tools, credit cards, a laptop, cash, jewelry, a stereo and a television.

About a half-hour after investigating the robbery, an attempt was made to make a purchase at Discount Tobacco on Greenbush Street in Lafayette using a credit card belonging to Cindy Murray.The clerk at the store was able to identify 39-year-old Dusten Fox from a photo as the same man that had attempted to use the credit card at the tobacco store.

On that same day, police were called to Lafayette Community Bank where a man had attempted to cash a stolen personal check belonging to Richard Murray. Officers obtained surveillance footage from the bank confirming the attempted transaction.

In an interview with police, 38-year-old Richard Lee Zollars said that he had been with Fox when they had tried to cash the stolen check.

In a later interview with Zollars, he described having taken part in a burglary with Fox that matched descriptions of the burglary of the Murray’s home in 2015.

Detectives then spoke with the manager of the Friendly market on Elmwood Drive in Lafayette who had been working the cash register on Sept. 18, 2015. He described two males entering the store to purchase cigarettes using a credit card. A photograph of the card taken by the manager showed the owner to be Cindy Murray. The manager then was able to identify Fox as the man who used the card from a photo.

Several months later, on May 9, 2016, at around 2:45 a.m., officers investigated a report of an armed robbery at a Shell station on Greenbush Street in Lafayette.

The clerk who reported the robbery described the man who robbed the store as thin and about five feet nine inches tall, wearing gloves and a mask and armed with a handgun. The man reportedly had stolen cash and several packs of cigarettes from the station after having pointed the weapon at the clerk. Surveillance footage obtained from the gas station confirmed the details of the robbery given to police.

On Sept. 26, 2017, police were again questioning Zollars about an unrelated incident when he mentioned the date and events of the Shell robbery in May. He then admitted to the robbery and to having stolen around $250 and a carton of cigarettes.

Zollars has been charged with armed robbery, intimidation, conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and two counts of theft.

Fox has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary, and theft.

Zollars has been charged with armed robbery, intimidation, conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and two counts of theft.

Fox has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary, and theft.